Officials: Dirty Bomb Suspect a 'Small Fish'

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 14 — The government media blitz after the arrest an
American accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb was
almost unprecedented for a terrorist suspect post-Sept. 11.

Attorney General John Ashcroft held a news conference via
satellite while visiting officials in Moscow. Justice Department
officials in Washington called him a significant terrorism figure
and President Bush weighed in to agree.

But two months later, U.S. law enforcement officials close to
the case say José Padilla is probably a "small fish" with no ties
to al Qaeda cell members in the United States.

The FBI's investigation has produced no evidence that
Padilla had begun preparations for an attack and little reason to
believe he had any support from al Qaeda to direct such a plot,
said one of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Still, some authorities believe Padilla should remain detained.

Padilla, 31, is being held in a military brig in South Carolina
as an enemy combatant, a legal designation allowing the government
to jail him without formal criminal charges. His attorney has
argued in court that he is being held illegally and should be
released.

Investigators have said they believe Padilla, a Muslim convert
and a former Chicago gang member, ventured overseas in search of
clerics connected to the most radical branch of Islamic
fundamentalism.

In early June, Ashcroft announced from Moscow via satellite
hookup that Padilla was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in
Chicago. Ashcroft's deputies also convened a news conference in
Washington.

"We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the
United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb," Ashcroft
said, adding that the government's suspicions about Padilla's plans
came from "multiple, independent, corroborating sources."

Now, two law enforcement officials close to the case say there
is no evidence a plot was under way. However, one had been
"thought out as a possibility," an official said.

Padilla's attorney, Donna Newman, said the government was
avoiding a court case because it has little evidence against him.

"What we could analyze from government statements is that they
didn't have sufficient evidence to charge him," Newman said. "All
they could do was allege that he was somehow involved in the
talking stages of a plan and they didn't even allege his role. And
that is supposed to be enough to hold him without trial?"

Justice Department officials declined to comment on the matter
Tuesday.

A "dirty bomb" does not produce a nuclear explosion; it
spreads radioactive material over a large area. Scientists say it
is more likely to cause widespread sickness and panic than deaths.

Since Padilla's arrest, the government has been more low-key in
announcing arrests of terrorism suspects. No news conference was
held when James Ujaama was taken into custody last month in Denver.
Instead, law enforcement officials simply confirmed the
apprehension when reporters asked.

Ujaama was arrested as a material witness to terrorist activity
and flown to Virginia. Federal authorities say they believe he
supplied computer equipment to an al Qaeda terrorist camp in
Afghanistan.

Most of the information that led to Padilla's arrest came from
captured al Qaeda operational chief Abu Zubaydah, officials said.
Zubaydah, the highest-ranking terrorist leader taken into U.S.
custody since Sept. 11, was captured and wounded in a raid in
Faisalabad, Pakistan, in late March.

One U.S. law enforcement official said the information Zubaydah
is supplying during interrogations is not always accurate and
investigators are treating his comments with increasing skepticism.

For months, Padilla worked out of Lahore, Pakistan, and twice
met with senior al Qaeda operatives in Karachi in March, government
officials have contended. Padilla and the others are alleged to
have discussed a radiological weapon plot, as well as proposals to
bomb gas stations and hotel rooms.

Investigators have since decided Padilla may have attended the
meetings more as an observer than a participant, one U.S. official
said.

Still, other officials suggest Padilla was important to the
government's terrorism investigations. A senior law enforcement
official said he may have been a scout, chosen for his ability to
move around the United States legally with a driver's license and
passport.

There are no plans to bring Padilla before a military tribunal
and U.S. officials have argued he can be held until the government
declares an end to the war on terrorism.

— The Associated Press

How Will Schools Handle Sept. 11?

N E W Y O R K, Aug. 14 — With crayon drawings and building block toys,
children in the New York area are still resurrecting the World
Trade Center. Then they ignite the drawings in scribbled orange
flames, and topple the blocks with their small fists.

Nearly a year after the nightmare of Sept. 11, children are
still struggling to understand what they went through that morning.

Many parents are expected to keep their children home this Sept.
11, but the 1.1 million-pupil school system will be open and
administrators are struggling to mark the day without triggering
terrible memories.

So far, simple, brief and unforced are the themes.

"What we have learned and seen over the past year is that the
impact is deep and how children respond is often unpredictable,"
Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said.

He said some schools may plan individual programs, but all will
acknowledge the anniversary by observing the citywide moment of
silence planned just before 10:30 a.m., the time the second tower
collapsed.

At that moment last year, Monica Watt's daughter was gripping
the hand of her second-grade teacher as they fled Public School 89,
three blocks from the stricken trade center. Some students watched
the first tower collapse.

Watt and other parents of children affected by the disaster say
they agree with the idea of a brief observance at the start of the
day.

"I think a lot of parents are not going to send their children
to school that day, but if they go, I don't think ignoring it is
better," Watt said. "I'm just concerned that it'll go on through
the whole month and they're never going to be able to get away from
it."

School officials said they never seriously considered canceling
classes this Sept. 11 in keeping with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's
position that public offices remain open. "We will carry on our
responsibilities to our families and to our city," the mayor said.

"You have a little acknowledgment of what happened, and then go
on with life," Leach said. "If you linger on it and have a whole
day of memorials, it would be too much."

Watt said her 8-year-old daughter, Melissa, has not been able to
sleep by herself since Sept. 11. Her 3-year-old son, William, saw
people jumping from the towers that morning.

In their Battery Park City apartment overlooking the disaster
site, the Watt children still draw pictures of what they saw.
William carefully includes ladders to save the jumpers.

Parents say their children show signs of stress in their play,
building and then destroying towers of blocks. A book of children's
art, soon to be published by the school system, includes drawings
of the trade center in flames.

A study released by city schools in May found that 76 percent of
city schoolchildren often thought about the attack six months after
Sept. 11; 24 percent had problems sleeping and 17 percent had
nightmares.

The study also said an estimated 75,000 children showed six or
more symptoms of post-traumatic stress — enough to be diagnosed
with the disorder. Nearly 90 percent were suffering at least one
symptom.

One recent afternoon, Andre Moten, 6, visited a park near ground
zero for the first time since the attack. He used to come regularly
with his grandmother and older brother, Shirod.

"I dream what happened to the World Trade Center," said Moten,
clad in an "I love New York" T-shirt. "And in my mind I keep
thinking that the World Trade Center fell down."

Schools in suburban areas that lost large numbers of people in
the attacks are also mindful of grieving children as they plan for
the anniversary.

In Middletown, N.J., where more than 30 children lost a parent,
administrators plan to observe a moment of silence in all schools.
Further programs may be planned by individual schools.

Levy said schools throughout the nation have flooded
administrators with calls seeking guidance on how to prepare for
the anniversary. They responded by creating a Web site with
guidelines and suggestions, which they also distributed to city
schools.

The 18-page handout warns teachers that children's needs will
vary greatly on this year's Sept. 11: "No one way to memorialize
will meet everyone's needs."

— The Associated Press

FAA Manager: Ohio Controllers Faced Sept. 11 Decisions

O B E R L I N, Ohio — Air traffic controllers believed they had a
hijacked plane in the air over Ohio on Sept. 11. They just didn't
know which plane.

During tense moments that morning at Cleveland Air Route Traffic
Control Center, the first guess was that Delta Flight 1989 was
hijacked, not United Airlines Flight 93.

"We knew right away we had a problem. The first thought was,
'Is that Delta 1989?'" said Rick Kettell, manager of the Federal
Aviation Administration's busiest regional center.

Kettell talked Tuesday about the drama of the day for the air
traffic controllers who had the last contact with United Flight 93
before it crashed in Pennsylvania.

The center, about 35 miles southwest of Cleveland, guides planes
at high altitude as they fly over portions of seven states: New
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and
Michigan.

The center's controllers were concerned about the Delta flight
because it had departed Boston five minutes behind United Flight
175, which crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center
in New York.

"We knew the magnitude of what we were dealing with," Kettell
said. "We knew what happened in New York before our involvement
became very keen."

Shortly after Delta Flight 1989 checked in with the Cleveland
Center while over Syracuse, N.Y., the center's controllers heard
two transmissions that sounded like a cockpit struggle.

Meanwhile, Flight 93 had climbed to 41,000 feet over the
Cleveland Center, and then over nearby Elyria turned 120 degrees to
the southeast, a move that surprised controllers.

"We were finally able to deduce by the airplanes talking back
to us which was the airplane not talking to us, and that was Flight
93," Kettell said.

While there was still no confirmed problem with the Delta
flight, the center expressed concerns to Delta's headquarters in
Atlanta, which instructed the plane to land at Cleveland Hopkins
International Airport. It was brought in moments before the
Cleveland Center received an order to ground all planes.

Meanwhile, two more transmissions came in with a terrorist's
voice speaking to passengers. By then, controllers knew for sure
that it was the United flight that had been hijacked.

"What we don't know was whether one of the pilots keyed the
frequency so we could hear it or if they [terrorists] hit the wrong
button not knowing the equipment," Kettell said. "My thoughts are
that probably the pilot was trying to help us."

Later that tense day, after most planes had landed, Oberlin
police warned the center of a small plane still flying and headed
toward the center. That warning resulted in a brief evacuation
except for essential employees. Kettell said that plane simply flew
past and was never identified.

No other center employee took part on the press briefing
Tuesday. An FAA spokesman said the controllers involved still do
not want to talk about it.

In June, the center dedicated a memorial on its grounds to
recall those who died when the hijacked plane crashed. Etched in
stone are the words: "In honor of the men and women of the
Cleveland Center and those aboard Flight 93 for their heroic
actions on September 11, 2001."

— The Associated Press

Senators Question Justice Dept.’s Cooperation in Probe

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 14 — The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee and
a top Republican on the panel expressed concern Tuesday that the
Justice Department was not fully cooperating with a probe into
alleged security lapses in the FBI's translator program.

The program has played an important role in interpreting
interviews and intercepts of Osama bin Laden's network since Sept.
11, including translating such sensitive documents as
al Qaeda-related wiretaps, documents recovered in Afghanistan and
interrogations of al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
in Cuba.

The charges were raised in a letter to Attorney General John
Ashcroft from committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen.
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the crime and
drugs subcommittee.

The department's inspector general is investigating charges by
FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds, a former contract linguist for
the bureau, of security problems with another linguist. Edmonds
also charged the linguist with translating some innocuous
information rather than important, intelligence-related material.
Edmonds was fired last spring for performance issues.

"We are troubled that the Department of Justice, including the
FBI, may not be acting quickly enough to address the issues raised
by Ms. Edmonds' complaints or cooperating fully with the inspector
general's office," the senators wrote.

FBI officials have said they believe the program is solid and
secure. The Associated Press reported in June that the agency was
investigating the charges.